Re: Uh, Interesting...

We are a representative government...that is the way it was way back when...maybe it is time for a change. We've evolved from the 13 colonies that was our beginning and gained communication, etc. opportunities that weren't available on day one.

There are those who don't want and insist that there should not be any changes made from that which was on day one...

I am in favor in making changes that better suit the present situation; after all, evolution is inevitable. If we don't evolve, we stagnate.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Re: Uh, Interesting...

I agree that some changes need to be made.
I'd like to see voting standardized. There should be no such thing as caucuses. Like you said that was fine way, way back when.

I found a preacher who spoke of the light but there was brimstone in his throatHe'd show me the way according to him in return for my personal checkI flipped my channel back to CNN and I lit another cigarette

Re: Uh, Interesting...

If possible, I'd invite y'all to catch a rerun of Trump's interview with O'Reilly the past weekend on Fox (see video below). I don't get why O'Reilly set him up to look like a raving maniac being how he seems to worship at his Chinese-made coattails; but good Lord, Trump is an idiot where world affairs is concerned! He believes he and Putin would be great friends and seems that the fact that he was KGB matters not and the fact that he has threatened NATO, supports Iran and North Korea, etc. again doesn't matter to Trump...he has a "feeling" they'd get along "just fine." He said that the Russian people love Putin...he saw it when he was in Russia a while back and that seems important to Trump, that the Russians love Putin...of course, not loving him could be a death sentence...I think his admiration for those who he sees winning "popularity" tells us something very important about him...he is dangerous!

But for all the fuss over the national polls, the only outcome that will matter on election night is how many states Trump can convert from blue to red on the 2012 electoral map between President Barack Obama and then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

And, based on recent polling and projections, 2016 is shaping up to be very much like 2012.

Of 23 states with recent polling available on RealClearPolitics, 22 align with the same party in 2016 as in 2012. The only one that is not, Virginia, is a statistical tie in the latest poll.

And the percentages by which Clinton and Trump are leading in these states are, in many cases, nearly identical to the margins by which Obama and Romney won them by in 2012.

In 2012, the key swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania went to Obama by a difference of 1, 2, and 5 points, respectively. Clinton is leading in the RealClearPolitics average in those states by a near-identical 2, 1.4, and 5.3 points.

"Every place we've polled in the last month we've found the Clinton/Trump race within a few points of where the Obama/Romney race ended up," wrote Tom Jensen, the director of the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling.

He added: "There was so much talk earlier this year of Clinton winning some sort of historical landslide that expectations got out of whack and now fuel perceptions that she's doing really poorly, but the bottom line is she's pretty much where Obama was in an election that while relatively close in the popular vote ended up as an electoral college landslide."

The map below compares the differences in the Democratic share of the vote in 2012 and in 2016:

Although still months out from an election that has proven volatile, those numbers make it look increasingly difficult for Trump to overcome the Obama-Romney map of 2012, when Obama won with 332 votes in the Electoral College.

In April, Morning Consult published their own projection of what a Clinton-Trump matchup would look like in the fall. The outlet found a strikingly similar result — the only state that flipped from blue to red compared to 2012 was Maine and its four electoral votes:

Last edited by KathyInAR; May 30th, 2016 at 12:03 PM.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Re: Uh, Interesting...

Donald Trump casts himself as a protector of workers and jobs, but a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation found hundreds of people – carpenters, dishwashers, painters, even his own lawyers – who say he didn’t pay them for their work.

During the Atlantic City casino boom in the 1980s, Philadelphia cabinet-builder Edward Friel Jr. landed a $400,000 contract to build the bases for slot machines, registration desks, bars and other cabinets at Harrah's at Trump Plaza.

The family cabinetry business, founded in the 1940s by Edward’s father, finished its work in 1984 and submitted its final bill to the general contractor for the Trump Organization, the resort’s builder.

Edward’s son, Paul, who was the firm’s accountant, still remembers the amount of that bill more than 30 years later: $83,600. The reason: the money never came. “That began the demise of the Edward J. Friel Company… which has been around since my grandfather,” he said.

Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will "protect your job." But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.

At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.

Trump’s companies have also been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage, according toU.S. Department of Labor data. That includes 21 citations against the defunct Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and three against the also out-of-business Trump Mortgage LLC in New York. Both cases were resolved by the companies agreeing to pay back wages.

In addition to the lawsuits, the review found more than 200 mechanic’s liens — filed by contractors and employees against Trump, his companies or his properties claiming they were owed money for their work — since the 1980s. The liens range from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, N.Y., air conditioning and heating company to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York City real estate banking firm. On just one project, Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, records released by theNew Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1990 show that at least 253 subcontractors weren’t paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers and plumbing.

The actions in total paint a portrait of Trump’s sprawling organization frequently failing to pay small businesses and individuals, then sometimes tying them up in court and other negotiations for years. In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources. Some just give up the fight, or settle for less; some have ended up in bankruptcy or out of business altogether.

Trump and his daughter Ivanka, in an interview with USA TODAY, shrugged off the lawsuits and other claims of non-payment. If a company or worker he hires isn’t paid fully, the Trumps said, it’s because The Trump Organization was unhappy with the work.

“Let’s say that they do a job that’s not good, or a job that they didn’t finish, or a job that was way late. I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely,” Trump said. “That’s what the country should be doing.”

'Visibly winced'

To be sure, Trump and his companies have prevailed in many legal disputes over missing payments, or reached settlements that cloud the terms reached by the parties.

However, the consistent circumstances laid out in those lawsuits and other non-payment claims raise questions about Trump’s judgment as a businessman, and as a potential commander in chief. The number of companies and others alleging he hasn’t paid suggests that either his companies have a poor track record hiring workers and assessing contractors, or that Trump businesses renege on contracts, refuse to pay, or consistently attempt to change payment terms after work is complete as is alleged in dozens of court cases.

In the interview, Trump repeatedly said the cases were “a long time ago.” However, even as he campaigns for the presidency, new cases are continuing. Just last month, Trump Miami Resort Management LLC settled with 48 servers at his Miami golf resort over failing to pay overtime for a special event. The settlements averaged about $800 for each worker and as high as $3,000 for one, according to court records. Some workers put in 20-hour days over the 10-day Passover event atTrump National Doral Miami, the lawsuit contends. Trump’s team initially argued a contractor hired the workers, and he wasn’t responsible, and counter-sued the contractor demanding payment.

“Trump could have settled it right off the bat, but they wanted to fight it out, that’s their M.O.” said Rod Hannah, of Plantation, Fla., the lawyer who represented the workers, who he said are forbidden from talking about the case in public. “They’re known for their aggressiveness, and if you have the money, why not?”

Similar cases have cropped up with Trump’s facilities in California and New York, where hourly workers, bartenders and wait staff have sued with a range of allegations from not letting workers take breaks to not passing along tips to servers. Trump's company settled the California case, and the New York case is pending.

Trump's Doral golf resort also has been embroiled in recent non-payment claims by two different paint firms, with one case settled and the other pending. Last month, his company’s refusal to pay one Florida painter more than $30,000 for work at Doral led the judge in the case to order foreclosure of the resort if the contractor isn’t paid.

Juan Carlos Enriquez, owner of The Paint Spot, inSouth Florida, has been waiting more than two years to get paid for his work at the Doral. The Paint Spot first filed a lien against Trump’s course, then filed a lawsuit asking a Florida judge to intervene.

In courtroom testimony, the manager of the general contractor for the Doral renovation admitted that a decision was made not to pay The Paint Spot because Trump “already paid enough.” As the construction manager spoke, “Trump’s trial attorneys visibly winced, began breathing heavily, and attempted to make eye contact” with the witness, the judge noted in his ruling.

That, and other evidence, convinced the judge The Paint Spot’s claim was credible. He ordered last month that the Doral resort be foreclosed on, sold, and the proceeds used to pay Enriquez the money he was owed. Trump’s attorneys have since filed a motion to delay the sale, and the contest continues.

Enriquez still hasn’t been paid.

Unpaid hourly workers

Trump frequently boasts that he will bring jobs back to America, including Tuesday in a primary-election night victory speech at his golf club in suburban New York City. “No matter who you are, we're going to protect your job,” Trump said Tuesday. “Because let me tell you, our jobs are being stripped from our country like we're babies.”

But the lawsuits show Trump’s organization wages Goliath vs David legal battles over small amounts of money that are negligible to the billionaire and his executives — but devastating to his much-smaller foes.

In 2007, for instance, dishwasher Guy Dorcinvil filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’sMar-a-Lago Club resort in Palm Beach, Fla., alleging the club failed to pay time-and-a-half for overtime he worked over three years and the company failed to keep proper time records for employees.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Re: Uh, Interesting...

Most of those were covered under the 4 Business Re-organizational Bankruptcies that y'all still are screaming about.

I found a preacher who spoke of the light but there was brimstone in his throatHe'd show me the way according to him in return for my personal checkI flipped my channel back to CNN and I lit another cigarette

Re: Uh, Interesting...

So now that he has lied his way to the nomination, Trump is changing the tune and offering himself up to those who want to "buy" him...again, he is a total unabashed and hypocritical fraud...talk 'bout buying a pig in a poke...

Re: Uh, Interesting...

He is a lying SOB! He has the unadulterated audacity to stand before a group of evangelicals and question Hillary's religious convictions...

It is often mentioned that Hillary grew up and was active in the Methodist Church...she has often mentioned it, it is often written about and her tax returns show generous contributions to churches...how much did Trump contribute to churches or other Christian organizations??? Likely it is hidden in the tax returns he won't release--nothing! There was never any mention of Trump's religious affiliation until he started running for president.

This is crooked Donald lying about crooked Hillary ... what an idiot!!! Hopefully, those he is speaking too aren't as stupid as he hopes they are!

Donald Trump questioned Hillary Clinton’s commitment to her Christian faith on Tuesday, saying that little is known about her spiritual life even though she’s been in the public eye for decades.

Speaking to a group of top social conservative evangelical Christian leaders at a gathering in New York City, Trump said, “we don't know anything about Hillary in terms of religion.”

“Now, she's been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there's no — there's nothing out there,” Trump said. “There's like nothing out there. It's going to be an extension of Obama but it's going to be worse, because with Obama you had your guard up. With Hillary you don't, and it's going to be worse.”

The meeting was closed to the press but E.W. Webb, a faith leader on hand for the event, posted video of the remarks.

Clinton does not speak frequently about being a Methodist, but she has opened up about it on several occasions on the campaign trail this year.

Trump on Tuesday also said that while it’s important to pray for everyone, that those one hand shouldn’t be “politically correct” by praying for the nation’s leaders who are “selling the evangelicals down the tubes.”

“People were saying, some of the people were saying, 'Let's pray for our leaders,'” Trump said.

“I said, 'Well, you can pray for your leaders' — and I agree with that, pray for everyone — but what you really have to do is pray to get everybody out to vote for one specific person.

“And we can't be, again, politically correct and say we pray for all of our leaders, because all of your leaders are selling Christianity down the tubes, selling the evangelicals down the tubes,” Trump said. “And it's a very, very, very, very bad thing that's happening.

In fact, it was Hillary's own words in her book Living History, where she writes about her deep Christian faith and it was that faith and promise before God when she married Bill that kept her in the marriage after the Monica thing. She said that as hard as it was, that her promise "before God" of "better or worse" that kept her there...

Over the years, I have read and heard of countless incidents of her deep and abiding faith and that it was often the only thing that kept her going in what surely has been some very difficult times. Just because the stupid Donald didn't know about it only means how unprepared he is when speaking, or he expects his audience to believe his hideous lies just because he says it.

Donald Trump Said Hillary Clinton Never Talks About Her Faith. Here Are 4 Times She Did.

June 22, 2016

While Clinton does not often speak about her faith, there's a well-documented trail of comments she's made on the role of religion in her life.

At a town hall event in January in Iowa, Clinton told an attendee that her Methodist faith has guided her decisions in public service.

"My study of the Bible, my many conversations with people of faith, has led me to believe the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself, and that is what I think we are commanded by Christ to do," Clinton said, according to the New York Times. "And there is so much more in the Bible about taking care of the poor, visiting the prisoners, taking in the stranger, creating opportunities for others to be lifted up, to find faith themselves that I think there are many different ways of exercising your faith."

In an interview with CNN in January, she also discussed her faith, saying she's "had a lot of blessings" in her life that led her to want to help others.

"I'm grateful that I was both raised with a faith and that the faith has sustained me," Clinton said in the interview. "I am very committed to what I believe is the discipline and the mandates that you should be responding to as a Christian and for me that has a lot to do with, you know, lifting up those who are the last, the lost and the least among us and trying to give more people a chance to chart a more positive for themselves. That's what I've always cared about and that's what I'll do as president."

In September, Clinton attended the 200th anniversary of the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., a church up the street from the White House where she regularly worshipped at during her husband's presidency.

There, she spoke about how the church sustained her during tough times in her life.

"In place after place after place, the Methodist church and my fellow Methodists have been a source of support, honest reflection and candid critique," Clinton said, according to the Washington Post.

It's not only this election cycle where she's spoken about her religion."I pray, I read the Bible, I read commentary on scriptures, I read other people's faith journeys," Clinton said in a 2007 interview with theNew York Times. "That is, for me, at the real core of how I keep feeding my faith."

Nor is this the first time Trump has questioned a political leader's religion.

Trump was one of the leaders of the movement of Republicans who questioned whether President Barack Obama was a secret Muslim. He also attacked Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's evangelical faith during the primary, asking in a tweet in February, "How can Ted Cruz be an Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?" And in October, he expressed skepticism of Ben Carson's practicing of Seventh-day Adventism.

"I'm Presbyterian," Trump said at a rally in Florida. "Boy, that's down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about."

Just another example in a long, constant line of incidents that prove that Trump has no idea about what he is speaking, doesn't care about the accuracy of the information that he spreads, commits fraud while believing those he is speaking to will be dazzled by him and are too stupid to know the difference between fact and fiction.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

I found a preacher who spoke of the light but there was brimstone in his throatHe'd show me the way according to him in return for my personal checkI flipped my channel back to CNN and I lit another cigarette

Re: Uh, Interesting...

I think it is important to be able to separate your own personal beliefs and convictions and realize you don't have a right to impose the same on others in the same way they don't have a right to impose their's on you. That is what freedom is about, that and having empathy for others.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Donald Trump has repeatedly labeled his political opponents liars. He dubbed Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) Lyin' Ted when it became clear that Cruz was a serious rival for his nomination; he called Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) an "even bigger liar" than Cruz. He dubbed Dr. Ben Carson a "pathological liar" and said former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's lies were almost as bad as Cruz's. Trump has termed virtually every mildly adversarial media member a liar, too.

But there's only one truly massive liar in this race: Donald Trump. When Politico attempted to measure how many lies Trump told over the course of 4.6 hours of speeches, they found that he lied, on average, once every five minutes. When Huffington Post catalogued

Which made it relatively easy to come up with this not-even-close-to-complete list of 101 lies from Donald Trump.

(click on the link to see the 101 lies listed; some are pretty stupid and ridiculous; others not so much--but it is proof positive that the man has no filter and cannot be taken at his word)

That's not even a complete list. Trump's dishonesty is so awe-inspiringly pervasive that it would be nearly impossible to catalogue those lies in comprehensive fashion. But be assured: if Trump's talking, there's a solid shot he's not telling the truth.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, is at the bottom of the Politifact list with a sad 9% of true or mostly true statements. Just 9% of the things Donald Trump says are mostly related to the truth.

Politicians running for president are graded by Politfact and the order runs in the way you would expect it to if you find yourself annoyed when Donald Trump is speaking. Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, is at the bottom of the list with a sad 9% of true or mostly true statements. Just 9% of the things Donald Trump says are mostly related to the truth.Trump lies so much that in 2015, Politifact awarded him the Lie of the Year for numerous statements he made, because the team couldn’t pick the most egregious lie. Out of 77 statements checked, 76 of them were found to be mostly false to false to pants on fire lies.

...

In reality land, we have Governor John Kasich, the only Republican 2016 candidate who isn’t terrifying for his lack of sanity, and Kasich has a 51% rate for saying things that are true or mostly true. Kasich is a hardcore Republican (anti union, anti women) but he hasn’t left the planet. He is grounded in the reality of his ideology and he is sane. This distinguishes him from the rest of the Republican field and makes him the only viable alternative were a person to be voting Republican. But Republicans have nothing but contempt for Kasich. He doesn’t lie enough to appease the base.Kasich is tied with Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist, who is a fierce advocate of a government that works for the people, who also scores 51% of true and mostly true statements. I point out his ideology because the right has been taught scary things about Sanders, yet here he is at the top of the truth pile. Something to think about.

At the top, with a 52% true or mostly true rating is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also has a long record of fighting for the middle class and poor, working families, women and children.Basically the top three are tied, with Clinton, Sanders and Kasich being the most honest in the 2016 field. These are the three grown ups in the race.

...

I don't know about you guys; but, I actually expect the person asking for me to vote for them for President of my country, to be way much closer to 100% truthful than any of these guys...

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Re: Uh, Interesting...

GOP, you have brought this on yourselves...how did you allow yourself to be ambushed by an egomaniac who believes the Earth spins around him and that everything is about him...even the Brexit! And this morning one of the son's was on TV and saying that he and his brother and sister will be advising their father "on policy"...why don't they, the mainstream GOP, just cancel the convention and sit this one out???

The outlet reached out to more than 50 Republican governors and members of Congress, and few want to speak at the convention next month. Some well-known Republicans aren't even planning on going.

Former nominees Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain have said they wouldn't go to the convention, as did both former Presidents Bush. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Sen. Lindsey Graham and up-and-comer Sen. Ben Sasse told Politico they won't be going, either.

Those who said they weren't planning to speak included South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn. Sen. Marco Rubio said earlier this month if he speaks at the convention, it won't be for Trump.

But one well-known Republican you'll likely see is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

He's appeared on the campaign trail with Trump and will lead Trump's White House transition team if Trump wins the election.

Meanwhile, NBC reports the so-called "Dump Trump" movement will be opening a "command center" in Cleveland soon and is reportedly gearing up for a convention fight.

Re: Uh, Interesting...

Christie has some of his own troubles going on.

How about asking NON politicians ie Sheriff David Clarke, Allen West.

I found a preacher who spoke of the light but there was brimstone in his throatHe'd show me the way according to him in return for my personal checkI flipped my channel back to CNN and I lit another cigarette

...Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and ex-Bears coach Mike Ditka will appear on behalf of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, reports Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs and Kevin Cirilli....Trump has boasted about his many athlete endorsers throughout his campaign. In a June speech, Trump mentioned Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Dana White as some of his supporters and people who he’d like to invite to the convention.

Brady has called Trump a friend, while Roethlisberger backed away from Trump after the speech.
...

Disclaimer...apparently there is some confusion about Tyson attending/speaking at the RNC, the SI says he is going, but not speaking...other sources says he is not going... Was he uninvited after someone realized how stupid inviting him would be?

Last edited by KathyInAR; July 4th, 2016 at 03:16 PM.
Reason: To add a disclaimer.

"...of no more satisfying conceit than the discovery of such hidden depths of character in one's own child..." - From Survive the Savage SeaIntegrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.